The present invention relates to document filing apparatus of the type comprising two spaced rails and a tab adapted for attachment to a document or file, which is slidably mounted on the rails.
In our co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 139,410 there is described a document filing device comprising a tab for attachment to a leaf of a document or document folder and supporting means for the tab on which the tab can be slidably mounted. The present invention is concerned with the supporting means for the tab and more particularly is concerned to provide supporting means in the form of a rail which can be readily mounted on a side wall of a cabinet drawer or the like so as to convert the drawer to one which can hold files in a suspended filing system and the position of which relative to the side of the drawer can be finely adjusted and locked.
It has already been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,185 to provide a rail which can fit over the edge of a drawer and which will support file rods or tabs. This known rail construction has comprised a portion which is sprung onto the edge of the side of the drawer and this has the disadvantage that it will only fit a relatively narrow range of drawer panel thicknesses and if the drawer panel thickness is too great it is liable to work upwardly and spring off the panel edge. The risk of dislodgement in this way is increased if files snag the rail as they are removed from the drawer.
A further disadvantage of this known construction is that there is no facility for adjusting the position of that part of the rail which supports the files in relation to the side of the drawer. The spacing of those parts of the two rails which carry the files is therefor determined solely by the width of the drawer and if this varies the file supporting tab or rod may not fit on the rails or may fit imperfectly so that the tab or rod will not slide smoothly along the rails.
We have also found that substantial economies can be achieved in manufacture if the rail is so designed that it can be extruded and subsequently cut to the required length. This results in a saving in manufacturing costs and a greater flexibility in use since standard lengths of rail can be cut to fit any length of drawer or cabinet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rail which can be mounted on the side wall of a drawer so as to support files within the drawer which substantially reduces or obviates the above described problems and disadvantages associated with known rail constructions provided for this purpose.